Chapter 47

Episode 47

#47. The Northern Automail (2)

The day after the banquet.

Ariana received what might have been the report she desired most from Chief Administrator Haytai.

“Lord Arad requested access to the spoils warehouse?”

“That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

“Grant him access. Tell him he can take whatever he wants. If anyone complains, have them invoke my name.”

She couldn’t sit still in her seat, brimming with excitement for no reason.

“What should I make this time? And what else?”

She wanted to transform into Mary and be by his side.

She was incredibly curious about what kind of magical contraption he’d create this time.

But she had much to do now.

Even though overseeing the Duke’s affairs in the North was relatively free, it wasn’t always so.

She needed to tend to the returning expedition forces immediately, handle rewards and promotions, and plan the next expedition.

“Personally, I’d like something that could help wounded soldiers and knights who’ve become disabled.”

“It’s likely to be that. He wouldn’t have asked to visit the spoils warehouse right after leaving the infirmary for no reason, would he?”

Ariana recalled yesterday’s events through Isabel.

‘This is how things turned out, though not intentionally. Of course, it’s a very welcome development. In fact, it’s something I wanted to ask for separately.’

Recently, Ariana felt the need to reorganize her alibi as Mary.

-Young lady, even though transformation magic includes mind interference, you shouldn’t be too complacent.

-Why?

-If there’s clear evidence or suspicion, it won’t work.

-!!

Isabel, the creator of the transformation magic necklace, said this.

-Somehow, it seems like Mary is surpassing Ariana… Anyway! We can’t afford to get caught now.

-That’s right! I don’t know how we ended up here, but if we’re found out now, things will really get complicated.

-I’m counting on you, Granny!

-You can trust me! There’s a brand new magic trick I’ve made just for this occasion.

With Isabel’s help, they created a Mary hologram on the day of the banquet.

It worked well. Arad left his seat without hesitation upon spotting Mary at the banquet, which Ariana readily permitted.

Thus began the chase between Mary’s illusion and Arad.

But even Isabel, the great witch, has her limits.

As the chase continued, the distance and duration limits of the illusion magic quickly approached, and thus it ended rather comically in front of the infirmary.

‘Could it be that the fervent deity is watching over us and the North?’

She looked up at the ceiling.

On the office ceiling was a carving depicting the first Duke of Lenslet, Rune Lenslet, in battle.

The legendary white snake Jormungandr from the Magic Realm, the Druid Barbarian Tribe of Mount Manus, and the Orcs of the Ice Sea’s far north were depicted cowering before Rune Lenslet’s shining sword, with some dramatic embellishments.

‘O fervent deity of Lenslet, please grant hope to our wounded soldiers and knights.’

The North is a place where barbaric atrocities are common. Many die, and just as many become disabled.

She had long been concerned about the disabled soldiers and knights. She tried her best to support and care for them.

Since her mother’s time, policies have been in place to provide monthly food rations and stipends to wounded veterans, along with job placement assistance.

This was practically a unique attempt across the continent.

But so far, the results have been minimal.

Even able-bodied people wander the North looking for work, and jobs for the disabled are nowhere to be found.

To begin with, the stipends were woefully inadequate.

The House of Lenslet lacked the resources to provide basic welfare. More than 70% of the budget went to military expenses, and taxes were collected at an excessively low rate.

For these reasons, most disabled soldiers met tragic ends or resorted to extreme measures within a few years.

‘O fervent deity, Rune Lenslet, I owe them so much.’

This had been a constant burden on Ariana’s heart for a long time.

* * *

Mary still had five more days until her return from vacation.

But the company must keep running during those five days.

Especially now with a new project underway.

“Do you really think hiring me is okay? I only have one arm.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t make you wield a sword.”

Ultimately, they felt the need to hire another permanent employee.

No matter how talented Mary was – the future Great Witch of the Snowfield, illegitimate child of Lenslet, with excellent craftsmanship, calculation, and administrative skills – frequent absences undermined her value as an employee.

Factually speaking, keeping Mary around was mainly to maintain connections with the future Great Witch.

“You’ll be the Director of Management Support from now on.”

“Director… Yes?”

“I want you to recruit people, procure materials, secure locations, manage documents, and handle the accounts for me.”

“However… I’ve only ever swung a sword my whole life. While I can do basic calculations, complex or large number calculations like merchants or bureaucrats do are difficult for me.”

So they hired Theo, a one-armed knight, as a temporary employee.

He seemed sharp and had a good vibe (getting extra points for being Sir Roji’s younger brother), so they hired him as the second employee without much thought.

“Here, take this.”

I handed Theo a wooden rectangular object filled with round beads.

“This is called an abacus. It’s more efficient than the primitive calculators used here.”

“An abacus?”

“Let me show you how to use it.”

Thus, I spent the entire morning teaching Theo how to use the abacus.

He picked it up quickly, being the sharp guy he was.

“Amazing! I never thought I could calculate in the thousands so easily!”

Now all that remained was teaching him to write with his left hand.

But that wasn’t absolutely necessary since he’d likely regain the ability to write with his right hand soon.

“Now that you’ve gotten the hang of the abacus, I’ll assign you some tasks.”

Though I didn’t tell him to stop practicing writing with his left hand.

Giving false hope only to have unexpected results would be troublesome.

“Yes! Please leave it to me!”

Perhaps emboldened by his newfound ability to handle complex calculations with the abacus, Theo’s tone was completely different from before, full of confidence.

“Recruit people. Find those who can work with us.”

“Are we hiring?”

“That’s right. Look for people with good craftsmanship. Also, we need someone who can read, write, and calculate.”

“How many people should we hire?”

“Hire as many as you can find. Oh! Even disabled people are fine.”

“…”

At my words, Theo’s eyes shifted slightly upward, probably thinking of certain people.

‘Definitely remembering his disabled comrades-in-arms.’

Looking at Theo’s expression, I knew exactly what he was thinking.

“And after gathering people, purchase a large open space on the outskirts of High City. We’re going to build a factory there.”

“What’s a factory?”

“Just think of it as a very large workshop.”

“Oh! Yes! Um, isn’t the Duke’s permission required to buy land in High City?”

“Don’t worry about that. Are we any ordinary merchant guild? Here, take this royal merchant permit. Show it and everything will go smoothly.”

“Understood! I’ll definitely complete the task! Definitely!”

“Also! Don’t feel pressured to finish everything today. No need to rush. We don’t even have tasks to give to new hires yet. We need a few days to prepare too.”

I added this to temper Theo’s burning enthusiasm.

“Additional note: From now on, I have extremely important and concentration-intensive work to do. So don’t come here when you’re done today. Not even for greetings.”

“I’ll remember that! I won’t let you down!”

After hearing my instructions, Theo answered enthusiastically and headed out immediately.

‘This guy made it all the way to a regular knight in High City based on pure skill. He’ll do fine. Sir Roji will subtly help from behind too.’

The tasks I assigned to Theo seemed difficult at first glance but were actually quite simple.

In this era, there were no complicated permits or paperwork like on Earth.

Plus, having royal backing eliminated even the minimal procedures that existed.

‘Let’s give it a shot.’

Honestly, I could have handled the recruitment and site selection myself.

Especially recruitment was something that should ideally be done personally, but there was a reason I delegated it to Theo.

‘Bringing in completely disabled soldiers and knights. Isn’t it the northern belief to repay kindness twofold and grudges tenfold?’

Firstly, the people Theo would bring in had a low likelihood of betrayal.

‘Since we decided to hire, let’s bring in trustworthy talents.’

They were the perfect fit for me and Lenslet, where security was paramount above all else.

“Alright. Shall we begin?”

Lastly,

I was extremely busy. There was a mountain of production and research to do.

‘When will I have time to cut and experiment with all this?’

Currently in the basement workshop were monster skins, bones, tendons, muscles, corpses, intermediate magic stones, and other items I brought back from the first round at the spoils warehouse.

These were the materials I chose instead of magical alloys for my automail.

Gulp.

Looking at these made me involuntarily swallow dryly. They were intimidating.

If we weren’t in the North where the church and mage tower’s influence was weak, I wouldn’t have attempted this. Probably.

‘To think I’ll be using black magic like this.’

What I envisioned for automail was one type of black magic – life magic. The forbidden realm commonly known as “chimera”.

But even black magic can mean different things depending on how it’s used.

Didn’t Earth have something similar? Nuclear power.

Crunch crunch crunch

I started working on the magic stones first.

There are three types of magic stones for this bio-automail, and considering production costs, I decided to use intermediate grade stones for all three.

And I planned to inscribe circuits representing electricity, magnetism, and life onto each stone respectively.

‘The electric circuit can use a lightning attribute stone, and earth attribute works best for the magnetic circuit. The problem is the life circuit…’

By the way, the problematic black magic here is “life” magic.

The word ‘life’ makes it sound tame, but the actual attribute and circuit notation is pure necromancy and chimera magic.

‘I’ll try the light, fire, wood, dark, water, and earth attributes for the life circuit and go with whichever works best.’

Slowly and carefully, I began enchanting the magic circuits onto the stones.

Particularly when inscribing the life magic circuit, I exerted an unprecedented level of concentration.

After what felt both fast and slow simultaneously…

‘The dark and wood attributes seem to work best with life magic.’

I successfully found stones that harmonized well with the life magic circuit without any issues.

Things were going smoothly so far.

Now that the research on engraving circuits onto the magic stones was progressing satisfactorily, it was time for the next step.

“Theo’s build was about this size, right? Probably?”

Next, I started cutting up the monster byproducts.

Crunch crunch snip!

I boldly cut through muscles, bones, and tendons with a saw that looked like it belonged in logging.

Of course, it only appeared rough from the outside. In reality, I calculated meticulously while sawing.

These will soon become part of someone’s body.

The shapes need to resemble human anatomy as closely as possible.

Muscles, skin, tendons – everything needs to be cut following their fibers.

Same goes for bones. Since monster bodies are much larger than humans, resizing is essential.

‘Really taking a lot of concentration and effort.’

Even though they were corpses, they were monster skins, muscles, and bones.

Ignoring the weight, they were extremely tough and sticky.

Sweat poured down my forehead as I sawed.

Anyway, after much hard work, I managed to process enough prototype materials.

After processing the monster byproducts came the turn of alchemy, known as the chemistry of the fantasy world.

Even after cutting and slicing to reduce size, these are still monster muscles and tendons.

They’re fundamentally different from humans, so thorough chemical treatment is necessary to approximate human strength.

Plop plop splash

I mixed various pre-prepared liquids and submerged the processed bones, muscles, skin, and tendons.

Woooom!

Then the liquids began to glow as if signaling a successful enhancement.

Out of ten containers, seven emitted the light of success.

“…”

But my expression remained unchanged despite the glowing liquid.

‘Even with my current luck stat, achieving this success rate… When others do it, they should at least get a minimum 30% success rate. Should I adjust the manufacturing process?’

Obviously, I can’t keep doing this for a whole year.

That’s why I told Theo to hire anyone with good craftsmanship.

My mind was already working on mass-producing these bio-automails while I worked.

The work that started in the morning didn’t end even as the sun set.

It continued past midnight into the early hours of the morning, with the workshop lights in the basement remaining on.